WELCOME HOME Located near

from Lincolnshire Pride January 2022

THE GOOD FOOD AWARDS

A GREAT ESTATE

Only once in a blue moon does the opportunity arise to purchase a property with the scale, elegance and the provenance that West Skirbeck Hall & Park near Boston enjoys. Owner Helen Proctor offers us a personal tour...

Images: Dean Fisher, Dean’s Aerial Photography.

THE DETAILS West Skirbeck Hall and Park, Boston

Location: Boston six minutes, 1.7 miles. Provenance: Imposing historical home set in 11 acres of parkland, designed in 1795. Grade II listed with many original features. Rooms: Four grand reception rooms, seven spectacular bedrooms with five luxury bathrooms.

Guide Price: £1,950,000. Find Out More:

Poyntons Consultancy, South Street, Boston Lincolnshire PE21 6HT. Call 01205 361694 or see www.poyntons.com. n WEST SKIRBECK HALL & PARK is one of Boston’s best kept secrets, a hidden gem surrounded by majestic trees and historic parkland. Truly a haven of privacy and tranquility, as you turn onto the long tree-lined driveway you’re immediately impressed and transported to a very special place, within the magical 11 acres of outstanding natural beauty, a perfect setting for a stunning late Georgian/early Regency country home. It’s beloved by owner Helen Proctor. Helen’s life has taken her all over the world from Canada to China. Her many career interests have seen her renovating period properties – bringing them back to life – maintaining an academic interest in developmental psychology, opening the first pub in China (The Ploughmans in Taiwan, specifically), running Centre Stage House of Couture in Tattershall and kickstarting an international renaissance for cast iron radiators via the company she founded, Paladin Radiators. In 1995, having returned to Lincolnshire and seeking a new home, she happened upon the property she remembered from her childhood and spent 18 months purchasing – and many

more years restoring – West Skirbeck Hall and having the whole renovation filmed for the TV Programme Our House. “The house was very sad inside,” says Helen. “It was full of many unspoilt features but most had been covered over in 1950s pastel paint. I didn’t introduce features; they were all here from generations before. I brought them back to life with the proper heritage colours that would have been used in the 1800s.”

“Nobody owns an old property. You’re simply a custodian for a future generation. I restored the many original fireplaces, the splendid wooden floors, superb decorative mouldings, mahogany and rosewood doors, wine cellar and Yorkstone terraces.”

“There’s a fine balance to observe when maintaining the integrity of an old property whilst also bringing modern features into it. But that’s the skill and by extension, that’s the fun, too. When we arrived at the house, we had to literally hack our way through its overgrown parkland and up the front steps to get into the house.” “We’ve worked hard to landscape the south facing formal gardens adjoining the 11 acres of parkland. I started with a blank canvas of lawn and added winding tree-lined paths, arbours full of fragrant delights, terraces and gazebos. We created several floodlit areas for relaxation outside including a covered barbecue area for informal dining with a large open log fire and a magnificent terrace seating 16 people for formal dining.” The hall was built by Henry Clarke from 1795 to 1802. Subsequent owners were also wealthy prominent local families; bankers, land owners, mayors and MPs. >> 75

>> Perhaps the most famous was William Garfit who founded Lloyds Bank locally. Garfit was MP for Boston and held his political surgery in the library, which he remodelled to include intricate hand-carved wood panelling and a fireplace which still bears his initials.

West Skirbeck Hall is arranged over two floors and comprises four reception rooms. The drawing room and dining room are two adjoining rooms, providing 16.5 metres of entertaining space. Upstairs are seven bedrooms including the master Coromandel Suite whose decoration has taken influences from Helen’s time in the orient with Warner fabric panels depicting oriental scenes in the style of coromandel screen from the late 17th century. The Hall is offered for sale with all of the furnishings, antiques and artwork as seen, and would make a perfect boutique hotel, luxury holiday let or a venue for wedding ceremonies, accommodating 100 seated guests in the adjoining drawing and dining rooms or 25 guests in the library... the grounds, too, would be perfect for photographs, making history for future generations, adding to the wealth of history already surrounding the house. n

n Rawsons Lane, Boston

Guide Price: £995,000

Fabulous architect designed property, completed only two years ago, stands in a much sought-after position along Rawsons Lane, Boston. Four double bedrooms, 7,000sq ft accommodation.

www.fairweather-estateagents.co.uk

n The Limes, Westgate, Louth

Guide Price: £700,000

Iconic Georgian Grade II listed Louth townhouse located in the highly sought after Westgate conservation area of the market town just a short walk to the town centre. Six beds, three receptions.

www.movewithmasons.co.uk

n Burton Coggles, Grantham:

Guide Price: £1,500,000

Substantial Victorian house with six bedrooms in a small rural community, presented in good order with generouslysized rooms and large, well-established private gardens.

COOL, CALM and COLLECTED

This month we’re championing the cool, calm and collected shades of duck egg blue and warm neutral linen hues, to create an ambience of calm throughout your home...

Main Image: Colefax & Fowler’s 2021/2022 autumn/winter collection; sofa in Porth Stripe fabric, left cushion Ashmead in navy, Sidbury in aqua. Right cushions Sidbury in aqua, Ellison in aqua. Chair Hardy Stripe in leaf green, chair cushion Birch Stripe, green. Sanderson fabrics are stocked by most of our independent local soft furnishing specialists.

Cool blue, aqua and duck egg shades can be warmed using neutral colours like linen...

Top: Wallpaper Zoffany Ormonde, bed and curtains Zoffany Visconte in stone. Above/Right: Inspired by nature, Elysian by Sanderson. Right: Autumn/winter 2021 collection from Zoffany; curtains in Talmont jade, headboard in Selma metal, cushion in Talmont jade, throw in Rimini jade edged.

Sanderson’s Elysian wallpaper, seen here is Lismore in silver grey colourway.

Clarke and Clarke’s Avebury. Fairford natural, Fairford linen and Bibury in ivory.

Lincolnshire Interiors: Aitch Interiors: 01522 810961, www.aitchinteriors.co.uk. Anelise Home: 01522 530400, www.anelisehome.co.uk. Delcor: 01780 762579, www.delcor.co.uk. Richard Sutton Interiors: 01472 268377, richardsuttondesigninteriors.com. Simply Stamford: St Mary’s Street, Stamford, 01780 481852, www.simplystamford.co.uk. Stevensons: 01472 233111, www.stevensonsgroup.co.uk. n

Beautiful Design at YOUR FEET

A beautiful investment for your home, something to make your living space a little cosier, or a way to finish off a reception room with style? Whatever your reason, Rachel Bassill and the team at The Rug Studio can help you find something beautiful and practical...

Words: Rob Davis.

RUGS YIELD RICHES for your country home. For whilst wooden floors or flagstones may be practical in country properties, the addition of a modern or antique rug adds warmth, and style, and they also remain a great way to bring the style and colour of a room down to Earth... in fact, you’ll have luxury, heritage, and craftsmanship literally at your feet. One person who knows only too well about the value that a rug can bring to your home is Rachel Bassill, who has 27 years experience and established The Rug Studio in 2000. After more than six years in Uppingham, she’s moved into a premises in Stamford affording her a convenient location from which to provide a sample of what’s available in respect of antique, contemporary and bespoke rugs. Rachel specialises in the ‘three Rs;’ not reading, writing and arithmetic, but retailing, repairing and restoring rugs, and at the heart of her expertise is huge knowledge about the countries that each of her rugs come from; fine flat-weave geometric Kilims to thick, hand-spun Gabbehs from Persia, for example. Each rug is a suffused with cultural references, from different fibres and colours to the design and construction of each one, and the cultural significance of their design. Accordingly, Rachel’s products range from doormat-sized rugs to huge room-sized rugs seven metres by five metres. Prices can range from £40 to tens of thousands of pounds, and in the rare eventuality that you’re unable to find something in stock to suit your home, Rachel also offers a ‘finders’ service.

Providing maintenance cleaning and restoration will also ensure that your rug remains an investment whose value can endure, but quite beyond the investment potential of a rug, though, Rachel is determined that each of her customers will find something practical, handmade and very beautiful that they’ll love having in their home for years to come. n

n The Rug Studio is based The Courtyard, just off Brownlow Street in Stamford, and has premises in London and Holt. For more information on the sale, restoration and repair of rugs, call 01780 239594 or visit www.therugstudio.co.uk.

The Outcome of COP26

It’s now universally acknowledged that in every walk of life we must consider the planet. What does that mean when you replace your windows and doors? Roy Wakeman OBE, Chairman of the CTI (Confederation of Timber Industries) and of local Window and Door installer The New Window Company considers the future...

Wood is now the centrepiece of the global strategy for tackling global warming and carbon emissions, following on from COP 26. Deforestation is to be halted and new forests are to be planted, a major commitment by all countries. We will all remember being taught about the process of photosynthesis at school where this process converts carbon from the atmosphere into nutrients for it to grow and then throws out oxygen as the by product. Forests are the lungs of the Earth. The spent carbon remains in the new wood of the tree and is trapped there for the lifetime of the tree or indeed anything that is made from the use of its timber, it is known as a carbon sink.

Not surprising then that the consumer armed with this information is choosing timber for their houses and products within them. Modern Timber Windows and doors can now last for over 65 years as evidenced from the studies carried out by Herriot Watt University and the Industry can now offer long lasting external paint systems that carry a warranty of 12 years. The products are made using engineered timber components where 95% of the material is used as the initial waste is recycled at the source of extraction. As the components are made from cross sectioned laminated pieces there is little chance of movement or distortion which used to be a feature of wood windows. The New Window Company based at Frieston Heath near Grantham has extensive modern show rooms and will be pleased to discuss customer’s needs. We are exclusive distributors in this region for Timber Windows. Double glazing is now a standard feature of Timber Windows and the Heritage market where listed buildings feature can now be catered for with ultra slim double-glazing units. As all products are made bespoke to customers’ requirements virtually every size and design can be met. So, period features from the classic years of Edwardian, Victorian and Georgian can be matched to comply with the requirements of the local planning guidelines. The embodied carbon is a key measurement of completed buildings and covers all the processes and products used in construction. We can all measure our own carbon footprint and suggest many do already. These can add up to the target of zero carbon set by our government by 2030 as will the conversion of heating boilers and other methods of power consumption from fossil fuels to green energy whether wind, solar or heat exchange. Timber Development UK have just launched the first technical paper to how to account for embodied carbon in timber construction by rigorously applying the British Standards. Timber is a natural material and the only raw material left on earth that can be renewed and replaced. New forests for commercial conversion are now being planted at increased rates across the world so that we should never have to worry about supply issues. n

Find Out More: New Window Company is based at Elms Farm, The Old Barn, Frieston Heath Lane, Grantham NG32 3HD. For a free no obligation discussion about your property’s needs call 01400 272538 or see www.new-window.co.uk.

Le Creuset traditional kettle £99. Stoneware mug £15/ea. Grand teapot £30-£50. Sugar bowl £15.